WH Admits to Conversations About How to Spin IRS Scandal

In the drip-drip-drip strategy of information release that characterizes the Obama White House, on Tuesday White House press secretary Jay Carney admitted that Mark Childress, deputy chief of the White House staff, had two conversations with the Treasury Department about how to spin the IRS scandal. “This was just part of trying to find out when and under what circumstances this information would be released, made public and what those findings would be,” Carney said.

But Carney added that the White House did not take part in the discussions leading to IRS tax-exempt section head Lois Lerner’s planned revelations about the IRS targeting conservative groups. “That didn’t happen,” Carney stated.

Lerner has indicated that she will invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination before Congress. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says he was not involved in the scandal rollout, either: “I wasn’t asked about this. I would have advised against doing that, but it was a decision for the IRS to make.”